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Nature Photonics 2, 521–522 (1 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.163

Ultraviolet laser diodes: Indium-free success

Ulrich Schwarz

The group III nitrides are a versatile material system for optoelectronic applications, enabling the fabrication of semiconductor light sources that cover the entire visible and near- to deep-UV spectrum. In principle it is easy to tune the emission wavelength of the GaN system — add indium (InN has a bandgap of 0.7 eV) to shift emission towards longer wavelengths, or add aluminium (AlN has a bandgap of 6.2 eV) to move into the UV region.